The stock of Punjab National Bank tanked as much as 5.7% to the dayâs low of Rs 152.45 on NSE. (Image: Reuters)

Shares of the state-run lender Punjab National Bank dropped nearly 6% after the bank said it has detected some fraudulent transactions in one of the branches in Mumbai while Bank of India shares tanked over 4% post Q3 results. The stock of Indiaâs largest bank State Bank of India also declined about 2%. Shares of PSB (public sector banks) witnessed a major decline on Wednesday after the negative earnings reported by major PSU banks with Bank of India down 4%. The stock of Bank of India shed emerged as one of the major losers among the Nifty PSU Bank index. Following a decline in almost all the components of Nifty PSU Bank, the index slipped more than 2 % to 3,394.4.

The stock of Punjab National Bank tanked as much as 5.7% to the dayâs low of Rs 152.45 on NSE after the bank informed about the fraud transactions. âThe Bank has detected some fraudulent and unauthorised transactions (messages) in one of its branch in Mumbai for the benefit of a few select account holders with their apparent connivance. Based on these transactions other banks appear to have advanced money to these customers abroad,â Punjab National Bank said in an exchange filing. The quantum of such transactions is $1,771.69 million (approx), PNB added. A heavy trading volume was witnessed in the shares of Punjab National Bank, as at 10:30 am, about 1.27 crore shares exchanged hands on both NSE and BSE with more than 1.17 crore shares on NSE alone.

Shares of Bank of India crumbled as much as 4.7% to the dayâs low of 138.05 after the state-run lender reported a net loss of Rs 2,341.23 crore for the quarter ended 31 December as it had to make up fo r under-reporting of bad loans worth Rs 14,057 crore and also driven down by treasury losses. Other PSU bank shares also traded in negative territory, Syndicate Bank down 3%, Oriental Bank of Commerce down 2.7%, Allahabad Bank, Union Bank of India, IDBI Bank, Andhra Bank, Canara Bank each declined 2-3% whereas shares of State Bank of India shed 1.65% to Rs 284. Bank of Baroda and Indian Bank were down 0.18 and 1.16% respectively.

Meanwhile today, Indian stock markets erased major gains after opening higher on Wednesday as blue-chip stocks fell substantially in the morning trades with Sun Pharma, SBI, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank losing up to 2%. The S&P BSE Sensex surged as much as 136.51 points or 0.4% to open at 34,436.98 whereas NSE Nifty gained 84.8 points or 0.81% to begin the day at 10,539.75. In the wee hours of trading, Sensex made a low of 34,264.83 and a high of 34,473.43. Shares of Bharti Airtel, HDFC, Adani Ports, RIL, HDFC Bank, Wipro and Infosys were the top gainer s among the Sensex components.